


Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

by A_Damned_Scientist



Category: Farscape
Genre: Filler, Gen, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 02:04:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15920676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Damned_Scientist/pseuds/A_Damned_Scientist
Summary: Bobby has a new hobby for Aeryn. And maybe a new career.





	Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

**Author's Note:**

> My own entry to my own SC107: Games People Play. A bit of a departure from my recent ouvre, back to something more family friendly.  
> Setting: Filler during Terra Firma  
> Spoilers: The show is 19 years old, I think we’re past those.  
> Warnings: None. Although this thing is packed with inside references, I hope you can enjoy it without getting them all.  
> Disclaimer: Farscape isn’t mine. And neither are any of the games.

**Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction**

 

“Looks like your number one fan is waiting for you in the lounge,” Olivia snorted, shoving Aeryn playfully with her elbow as the two women walked up the drive and past the lounge window towards Jack Crichton’s front door.

Aeryn sighed softly and nodded. Glancing inside she could see Bobby Crichton hunched on the sofa, forearms resting on knees, teeth clenched and game control clutched in both hands as he concentrated on playing some sort of computer game.

“Do you think you could mind him for a bit…?” Olivia asked, fumbling in her handbag for the door key. “I need to get dinner on.”

“I could help you…” Aeryn suggested, gritting her teeth in a forced, hopeful smile as Olivia found her bunch of keys and selected the appropriate one. She would much rather spend time talking to Olivia, getting to know her, getting to know about John, than pretending to enjoy some juvenile sub-game-blob with the hormonally turbulent Bobby.

“Then he’d be under my feet. And we’re running late after that shopping spree,” Aeryn frowned, realising that Olivia was ever so slightly guilt tripping her over the amount of time she had spent at the mall that afternoon. “Pleeeeease!” Olivia wheedled, playing her final card as the key entered the lock.

“Fine!” Aeryn conceded with an exaggerated sigh. In truth, she told herself, maybe it wasn’t such an imposition. She’d rather undertake a tactical sim any day, even a poor one, over having to cook food. Besides, it clearly meant a lot to Olivia that Aeryn spent time with all the family, not just her. So, to please her new friend, Aeryn decided to go along with it.

Bobby wasn’t bad, really, just a little young, awkward, and totally in awe of her.

“Mind the hover hand!” Olivia smirked as the door juddered lose.

“Wha…!” Aeryn began to protest with a duck-faced pout, but then caught herself as Booby turned his head to greet them. Best not let the young Crichton male know that his behaviour around Aeryn had been noted and discussed by the women, with considerable friendly mockery.

“Hey Aeryn, hey aunt Olivia!” Bobby greeted them, turning to look over his shoulder, Olivia made a swift left turn and exit through the door to the kitchen, while Aeryn walked across towards Bobby, well aware of how his eyes followed her keenly every step of the way. He was almost as bad as John had been, once upon a time, before he had sworn off of gazing longingly at her.

“What have you got there?” Aeryn enquired, settling herself cross legged on the floor beside Bobby, trying to drive away unsatisfactory thoughts of John with idle chatter.

“It’s a game. Sort of Dungeons and Dragons,” Bobby supplied.

Aeryn shook her head and frowned in incomprehension. She picked up the box and turned it over in her hands, trying to make sense of the lurid cover art. She realised that she was grinding her teeth slightly at the almost Scarran-like creature depicted there.

“You know Dungeons and Dragons?” Bobby informed her. Her thrown and single sharp headshake conveyed that in fact she did not.

“Sword and Sorcery?” Bobby tried again.

“Sauce?” Aeryn shook her head again. “Is this about cooking?”

Bobby sighed and shook his head.

“How about I set it on two player mode and you just have a go, you’ll soon get the hang of it?” Bobby must have taken her silence as agreement. Never mind, it would be educational, and she had promised Olivia… The teenager quickly toggled through a few settings and: “I’ve set your character as a sort of sorceress.”

“Not a warrior?” Aeryn asked in disappointment. By now she had gathered enough intel about the game to realise it was some sort of tactical combat sim, as she had originally suspected. So in a combat sim she had expected to take the part of a warrior.

“Nah, fighters are boring, this’ll be way more fun, trust me!” Bobby winked at her and handed her a second control paddle. Aeryn mimicked how he held it, trying to fathom which button did what.

“Then after this we can play an adventure game,“ Bobby gushed on, clearly lost in the excitement of having Aeryn playing with him. Aeryn’s heart sunk at the thought of there being another game after this one. “I’ve got the latest Tomb Raider…  I reckon you’ll love it….”

@@@

“Hmm, smells delicious. Is that Italian?” Jack enquired as he slipped into the kitchen through the side door.

“John’s favourite,” Olivia grinned, not knowing that it was anything but. The raised, animated voices of Bobby and Aeryn, accompanied by a dramatic and noisy sound track, filtered through the closed door from the lounge.

“Sounds like Aeryn and Bobby are having a great time?” Jack greeted Olivia with a peck on the cheek.

“Yeah…..  Third time this week.” Olivia rolled her eyes but smiled all the same.

“Are they playing on his console again?”

“What do you think?” Olivia shook her head. The rhetorical question was answered by the over amplified sounds of a female grunting from exertion in the other room. “She’s a natural. She seems to have an inside track to all the characters.”

A female voice from the game soundtrack made the glass door to the kitchen hum as she half grunted, half shouted something.

“Sounds like they’re playing that Lara Croft game?” Jack frowned.

“What else?” Olivia nodded, pulling trays of food from the oven and putting them on a trivet on the counter. “I thought Aeryn was just doing it to humour him at first, but she actually asked Bobby to play this afternoon.”

“What, really?” Jack chuckled as he pulled cutlery from the draw. The grunts of exertion had now morphed into the sort of grunts, shouts and crashes that seemed to suggest some sort of fight was taking place.

“Really. And she’s already beating his scores, too!”

“I bet Bobby hates that?” Jack laughed softly, getting out a stack of plates from the cupboard.  “I know how much he’s into his games. Does he still want to work in the industry?”

“Are you kidding? He’s besotted!  He even started talking at lunch about putting a character like Aeryn into anything he might work on! Can you drain the kale?”

“How did Aeryn take that?” Jack laughed, taking the pan to the sink.

“Fortunately she wasn’t here!” Olivia rolled her eyes and shut the oven door. “He said he was goinf to ask her to stay on Earth and voice them all!”

“Well, that’s be nice,” Jack chuckled. “Though she’d have to change her name to keep it on the down low!”

A victorious shout sounded through the closed kitchen door, indicating that Aeryn was loudly celebrating another triumph.

“Sounds like that’s another one up to Aeryn?” Jack grinned. Olivia smiled back and snorted as she raised both eyebrows to indicate that was no big surprise.

“Excellent. Go tell them to quit, will you? I didn’t want to break them up, but dinner’s been ready for ages!”

 

 

The end


End file.
